"It's My 15th (Chat Room) Anniversay!"

(Written 9/27/11 by ChristopherK2 for the Nice MDers Over 35 blog)

Although I can't be certain of the exact date, it was this time of the year in 1996 that I first entered the Marylanders (its name back then) chat room. So, I'm counting today as my official 15th anniversary with this chat room group. Yeah me!!!

I had joined AOL in the summer of 1996 mainly to read various magazines and newspapers online. A few months later I read about the chat rooms and thought they sounded interesting. I was living alone in Scottsdale, AZ, far from my Maryland home. So I thought it might be interesting to try chatting with folks from my old stomping grounds.

That small decision has led to 15 years of ups and downs, but mostly some great memories and outcomes. A few of them follow...

Great Women: Not only did I meet my wonderful fiancée thru AOL, but a lot of others who were "just friends." Ladyhawg (Nancy), for example, was not just gorgeous, but also intelligent, educated, tall, funny, and she lived life large. There were many others, like Lady Exec, ZimaGal, VickiSue, and (pre-Zombie) HamOnWry. Some I've remained in touch with, much to my delight.

Social Functions: These were very popular back then for several years. The second one I attended, for example, was a semi-formal Valentine's Day dinner dance with about 200 people. I went to many of the nightclub events, but that wasn't really my thing. I mostly enjoyed the family picnic atmosphere at Clark's Restaurant... good food, sports, swimming, music, etc.

I Rediscovered Photography: That interest had been dormant since my marriage ended eight years earlier. But self-pics were rare on AOL at the time. So I bought a flatbed scanner after I returned to Maryland, and began taking pics at social functions. I photographed hundreds of AOLers, and my interest in photography in general took off.

I Rediscovered my Interest in Creative Writing: I hadn't written anything creative for many years. But in the early years of AOL, message boards were quite popular. So, I joined several and began again to write poetry, fiction, editorials, and much else. And I obviously still do a lot of writing.

The Chat Rooms: They've always reflected the overall group, so they've gone from several large rooms to two small ones, from nice adult chat to predominantly ugliness, and from crowded and dynamic to near-empty and often moribund. I don't hold out much hope for the future of our chat rooms; they are both below critical mass at this point and I see no hope of the factions combining. I see them fading away, sooner rather than later.

But no matter what happens in the near future, I'll still have left from my AOL experiences a few friends, and all those wonderful memories... oh... and a LOT of pics!

Pic-of-the-Day, 9/24/11

I doubt this pic is really all that good, but it's one of my favs. That's probably because it appeals so strongly to my mathematical brain because of all the vertical, horizontal, and slanted lines. It's soooooooo, well, orderly. LOL

And it's another example of just being alert to the world around you. I had taken some fall foliage pics near the lake about 200 yards behind me and was walking back to my car (up the steps and to the left) trudging along with a lot of equipment (camera, tripod, large bag of stuff, etc.).

The first thing that caught my eye was the blues in the steps, followed by the wonderful light, and then the tunnel effect of all the rafters, etc.

I think only slide film could've captured the range of darks and lights without losing the very attractive details.

And a final note: I shot this because it very much pleased my eye, which is all that really matters...

Pic-of-the-day, 9/19/11

(Written 9/19/11 by ChristopherK2 for the Nice MDers Over 35 blog)

This shot was taken at our local city park. The vast dynamic range of slides allowed me to keep the trees from turning into giant blobs of green, and the sun's reflections from turning into pure white streaks.

Another lesson I drew from this is to be prepared for a good scene even when you least expect it. In this case I was hauling my equipment just before sunrise from the parking lot (to the left of the scene) to a pretty rose bush (well behind the trees on the right, near that bridge) I had been meaning to photograph.

Luckily, I noticed the pretty scene to my left as I was walking by...

"Pic-of-the-Day, 9-14-11"

(Written 9/14/11 by ChristopherK2 for the Nice MDers Over 35 blog)

This is a pic of my fav gazebo at our City Park. I was lucky to grow up just a few hundred yards from this spot.

It's a wonderful place for a family picnic, or just to use as cover from the oppressive sun and heat of a summer day.

It's not possible to show all of the beautiful scenery within view from there. To the left about 50' is the large lake at the north end of the park. Maybe 150' behind the camera, the stream emerges from a wellspring, and flows thru a small pond and under a gorgeous bridge. Yet another, unseen, stream behind the gazebo flows to the lake from a larger pond to the right, which in turn is beside a scenic bridge and the south end of the park.

Is it any wonder why I moved back to Hagerstown?

"Yeah, Call Me Shallow"

(Written 9/12/11 by ChristopherK2 for the Nice MDers Over 35 blog)

I doubt that I'm alone here, but I have a whole lot of reasons for totally rejecting out of hand women as possible girlfriends, and men as buddies.

The idea for this article came from comments on another blog describing Mensa's looks in glowing terms. But I could never date her because she has a "horsey" smile (she arches her upper lip a lot when smiling thereby showing off her gums). Who wants to stare at gums for the rest of their life???

And forget women who chew gum, especially bubble gum. I've had nightmares about, "Oh, yes, baby, right there!"

Another one is a local attorney who does tv commercials. The man does NOT move his upper lip when talking. It's like watching a ventriloquist! Yuck! He and I will never EVER be buddies.

Also on my list would be women who don't shave their legs or armpits, have more that one small tattoo, and women shorter than 5'4" or taller than 5'9".

And I'll never be more than acquaintances with nail-biters, lovers of cruciferous veggies, religious zealots, or anyone who uses a cutesy spelling of their first name.

Some minor annoyances are acceptable IF there are compensations. For example, I hate bumper stickers, but a woman with *great* legs is okay even if her bumper has three various-colored ribbons. NRA stickers are, of course, an automatic disqualifer.

And some characteristics are fine, in moderation, but disgusting otherwise. I like most any perfume on a woman, but if you use so much that you smell like a French whore house, goodbye! And I believe in some absolute male/female differences. I can fart, but you can't. And when we dance, ladies, *I* lead. Deal with it.

I once had a boss who was a wonderful and interesting guy, with undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. He had great friend potential *until* we ate together. The man ate a salad like a frickin' Hoover vacuum cleaner. He'd stab his fork deep enough into it to get about 1/3rd of a bowl, jam it into his mouth with dressing spraying all over, and then seemingly swallowed it whole. It took him about four minutes to finish a meal. I thought I was gonna hurl every time we ate together.

Yeah, I'm shallow. Sue me...

"Pic-of-the-Day, 9-10-11"

(Written 9/5/11 by ChristopherK2 for the Nice MDers Over 35 blog)

We are lucky here in Hagerstown to have several permanent sets of gorgeous swans in our city park. But they are a struggle to photograph because they're soooooooooooooo white. That is one thing a camera struggles with far more than the human eye. Unless you're VERY careful with your camera, it will turn large parts of the swan into blobs of pure white that lack any detail.

There are several ways to cope with that, and this pic shows one way. It was taken in a fairly shady area, thereby lessening the normal contrast. Then when you edit it, you can keep dialing up the contrast and brightness until just before the highlights start to blow out.

Another trick I used here is a visual one, which fools the human brain. The swan is in the dead center of the pic, but doesn't look like it. The slanted rock at the bottom seemingly "pushes" the swan towards the upper right, as does the submerged diagonal walkway. And the off-center lighter green reflections "pull" the swan to the right.

As I mentioned to you, I often walk around a subject for several minutes before taking the shot. After doing that for a long time, you develop a good "feel" for photos. I shot this one very quickly because I knew the swan might move along at any moment, I loved the reflected light, and I knew the large rock would look good.

"Flower-Pic-of-the-Day, 9/5/11"

(Written 9/5/11 by ChristopherK2 for the Nice MDers Over 35 blog)

I've decided to regularly add some of my favorite flower pics to the blog. This is, of course, because I'm in a writing dry spell and just sticking a pic on here is at least something.

This pic is of the flower (well, not so much) of a cactus I brought back with me from Arizona. The flower only lasts one day, then dies. So you have to be quick with the camera and hope it's a nice day for photography. The cactus died not long after because, really, a cactus doesn't like Maryland weather.

What you see here is mostly the base and stem of the flower because, frankly, I liked the results better. The actual flower was a rather drab white. I moved it out to Mom's driveway and shot it from above against the macadam to get a good background.

"Just a Pretty Flower"

(Written 9/3/11 by ChristopherK2 for the Nice Marylanders Over 35 Blog)

This is just one of the many flowers I posted in an article on Ugly's blog. (Alas, this blog isn't as picture-friendly as Ugly's).

For the rest of the pictures and the full article, go to:
http://ugliermarylanders.blogspot.com/2011/08/early-spring-is-gone-but-hooray-for.html#comments

It's probably best to skip the comments, as most are just more ugly drama.